My Restoration Process

[WillyC]

Nice work James!

[bigeasy1]

Nice indeed.
For someone who never did glass work,you sure learned pretty quick on that console.Great job.
How you guys down south work in that heat is beyond me.I did my resto in the north,and even in the cold winter the tyvek suit was nasty,can't imagine doing it in that heat and humidity.

[muddywater]

If I learned quickly, it was only because of all the great info I learned here at CSC. Learning from others mistakes is just as helpful as the parts they got right.

I have learned to be wary of some of the other sites though as I have seen some really bad info. On one site I recently looked at, some guy posted that all the strength comes from the chopped strand mat not the woven roving or axial cloth saying that it must be stronger since the fibers went in all directions. It was then taken as gospel by all the others there, and then rehashed by others quoting the so-called expert.

[FishStretcher]

Nice work! I like the attention to detail, like the routed fillets and the nice knees, and the coosa transom core.

Chopped strand mat isn't the best stuff around, but it is nice in that it is uniformly strong (or weak, depending on your point of view) in the plane in which it lies. Unlike uni, biax or woven roving. But multiple layers of biax or really any long fiber reinforcement with enough appropriately staggered angles can be stronger per pound, and nearly uniform in terms of strength and stiffness in plane. The result is so called planar "quasi isotropic".

[Blue_Heron]

Muddywater,
Looks like you've done your homework. Let me throw some comments and suggestions at you.

Originally Posted by muddywater

...we laid in 5 more layers of 1708 biaxial over the outer skin extending out over the corners.

Originally Posted by muddywater

...for the inner skin I decided to go with
1 layer 1708 (mat side facing the core)
3 layers of 24 oz triaxial (no mat)
1 layer of 1708 (mat side facing out)

You've grasped a fundamental concept in the construction of cored laminates that most guys miss entirely. The strength in a cored laminate comes from the laminate, not the core. You built up the laminate on both sides of your transom core which will make it much stronger and more durable than a strong core with thin laminates. And as you say, you don't need mat if you're using epoxy resin.

Originally Posted by muddywater

I would love to hear any opinions on how to improve my workflow because we are still pretty inefficient and I still have a deck to do.

You said the stitchmat is hard to wet out unless it's horizontal. I agree. I use a wet out table and then roll or fold the wetted glass, move it to the layup, and roll it in with a grooved roller. That allows me to get the wet-out done quickly before the resin wants to kick. The real trick is to get your resin out of the mixing cup as fast as you can after mixing. During warm weather, resin builds heat fast in the cup, but once it's spread in a thin layer in the wetted glass, it doesn't build heat, so it doesn't kick as quickly. You can also chill your resin and hardener in a cooler or fridge until you're ready to mix. That will give you more working time.

Originally Posted by muddywater

I made 2 plywood templates to make sure my fit was perfect ...

For templates, use masonite. Works well and is cheaper than plywood.

Originally Posted by muddywater

I have learned to be wary of some of the other sites though as I have seen some really bad info. On one site I recently looked at, some guy posted that all the strength comes from the chopped strand mat not the woven roving or axial cloth saying that it must be stronger since the fibers went in all directions. It was then taken as gospel by all the others there, and then rehashed by others quoting the so-called expert.

The internet is full of incompetent X-purts. The strength in a FRP layup comes from the glass/resin ratio. The more glass you've got the stronger it is. Mat soaks up a bunch of resin relative to the amount of glass it contains. If an all mat layup had the best strength to weight ratio, all our boats would be laid up with a chopper gun.

It's nice to see someone doing good work on the first go. You've got to be smart enough to know what you don't know, and educate yourself before you try to tackle something you've never done before. Looks like you've done that.

Dave

[RUSTYNTABATHA]

where did you get the coosa in new orleans ? i work offshore out of houma and pass through every week on my way to and from work and i am going to start buying some materiels. I think i emailed back and forth with mark a couple times a few years ago and next time im in lafayette will have to look you two up. My poor boat has been sitting for over 6 years and it looks like i am going to add to the boat yard i call home this week with a 20 MA ... but it is in running condition for the summer.. and maybe 2 summers before a rehab of it..

[muddywater]

Thanks for all the great suggestions Blue. I am not sure why it never occurred to me to put my resin in the fridge before a job. I will definitely have to try that.

Rusty, Will is in Lafayette and I live south of Lafayette so we might have to get together some time. As far as the Coosa goes, it has been several years since I bought it so the prices may have changed, but it is still better than paying freight. I think they sell everything needed for boat building, but I have not purchased anything except the Bluewater 26 for the transom and some Bluewater 20 for the deck. They are on River Road close to the old Huey P Long bridge In Harahan. I just dug up an old product list and the name is Advanced Plastics. They apparently have locations in multiple states and a web site with a catalog if you want to google it.

Your boat isn't red is it? I know there was a red 23 Sceptre in Maurice for a while, but I cannot remember what kind of engine it had on it. I have not seen very many 23's around here except the one my cousin had with the shrimp trawling setup on it.